Be the Cure, Join Today!

The Pulse

My Story: Ron Brown

by Pamela M. on Thursday, August 22, 2013

Ron Brown South Dakota

Over the past few years, I have undergone a back surgery and replacement of my right hip. I took all the precautions, took my medications as prescribed, I ate right, and I exercised as instructed. Before the procedures were performed, my health was checked out inside and out. My heart in particular was strong with no sign of disease. On Thanksgiving Day, 2009, everything changed.

That late November holiday, I got up early, spent some time on the treadmill and the exercise bike, ate breakfast and as my wife started preparing the Thanksgiving meal for our relatives, I went outside to finish up some maintenance work I had started the day before.

While standing on a ladder finishing up the task, I thought someone shot me in the left arm. It was hunting season and there were hunters all around us, perhaps a stray bullet hit me?

I climbed down off the ladder expecting the worse , but discovered no damage. But why did my arm feel the way it did? I had no shortness of breath, no chest pain, no sweating, other than my left arm feeling like it had been shot. It took only a matter of seconds before I realized, I was having a heart attack.

I ran to the house, put a couple of aspirin under my tongue, instructed my grandson to get the pickup ready, and we were headed for the hospital some 25 minutes away. We pulled up to the emergency entrance, I jumped out and ran in, they saw me coming, put me in a wheelchair and headed to the ER. Less than a minute later, I was technically dead as my heart had stopped. After jumpstarting me, it was off to the Cath Lab where two stints were inserted. The best part? Tests the next day revealed no heart muscle damage. Two days in the hospital and other than a handfull of pills that I take each day, I was back to where I was that Thanksgiving morning.

Why was I spared after suffering this severe heart attack when so many are not? I recognized the signs, I took immediate action and headed to a cardiac hospital where they knew what to do and they did it!